A UNITED strategy to lure more women entrepreneurs into business in York and North Yorkshire will be hammered out at a meeting next month.

Top agencies and networks dedicated to encouraging women in business in York and North Yorkshire will meet at the Monk Bar Hotel, York, on December 1, as the impetus to solve the challenges women face hots up in the region.

The meeting has been called by Laura Morrison, project manager of the Women In Enterprise initiative, whose task is to redress an imbalance in which men are 2.5 times more likely to be directors of York and North Yorkshire companies than women - a region where, she says, the brightest of female entrepreneurs feel daunted.

The initiative is run by the York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce and funded by Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency.

Among the organisations invited are WIRE (Women In Rural Enterprise), Phenomenal, and WORCNET (Women's Opportunity for Rural Contact through Networking, Education and Training).

Also among those invited to the gathering will be delegates from the Construction Industry Training Board, Jobcentre Plus and Business Link York and North Yorkshire.

Mrs Morrison said: "It will be a mapping exercise to explore each other's aims and see where there are points of convergence so that we can take positive action."

Her meeting comes in the wake of a huge build-up of awareness of the issues would-be businesswomen face.

Yorkshire's top female entrepreneurs joined forces yesterday with DTI Minister Jacqui Smith at Yorkshire Forward's headquarters in Leeds in a drive to boost womanpower in commerce and industry.

The move, part of the Government's Women's Enterprise Strategic Framework, had the backing of some of Yorkshire's leading female role models, including Sally Robinson, from Helmsley clothing firm Ample Bosom; Kathleen Hird, from Swaledale Woollens; and Jan Smithies, from Spice!, described as the North's version of the Eden Project.

Keeping up the pressure will be A Make It Your Business conference organised by Business Link York and North Yorkshire at the Cairn Hotel, Harrogate, on Tuesday, November 16.

Top speaker will be Izzy Warren Smith, founder and director of WIRE, who will explore the opportunities available to women, the barriers they face, particularly in the rural areas when it comes to the impact of caring and domestic responsibilities, their sense of isolation, financial hurdles and issues of personal confidence.

Updated: 09:13 Wednesday, November 03, 2004